culminating_project_dr_js_sped_531fandomcom-20200214-history
Part II Invidualized Education Program and Involvement
Here is an explanation of the development of an IEP Step 1 of Developing an IEP. Gather the Team The key to developing and Individualized Educational Program is first developing the IEP team. Many people can be a part of the team. These key members must be relevant to the student and can attest to the student’s needs. They have experience with the student and have observed the student’s academic and behavioral performance. The parent, social workers, the teachers, specialists that work with the students (e.g. speech pathologist or behavioral therapist), a local education agency (LEA) representative, and sometimes the student. All the members have valuable information they can contribute to the meeting. The team will discuss strengths and weaknesses of the student. They will share their observations, and began to develop a program that they feel will help fulfill the student’s needs to become most successful in the school. Step 2 of Developing an IEP. Developing the Document After the team has been put together, a legal document of the IEP will now be developed by the team as they discuss concerns, strengths, weaknesses, and goals. The first part of the IEP is called the present level of performance. Keep in mind various assessments, formal and informal, along with input from the team will be served as the basis for developing the IEP. In the present level of performance part of the IEP a brief discussion of the results of assessments and personal input are given. Assessment may be standardized, like the End of Grade State tests. Other tests, like benchmarks are also discussed. Medical tests, psychological tests, functional tests, and behavioral tests results are all discussed in the present level. The present level of performance will discuss behavior, academic performance, and other important information from the assessments. The next part of the IEP will discuss goals for the student. There are different types of goals. There can be academic goals for math and reading, there can be behavior goals to improve behavior and social skills, there can be occupational therapy goals, speech goals, and other goals. These are the most common goals used. Example: Here is an example of a reading goal: Based on teacher observation, student work samples and informal assessment, Jackson is able to decode two and some three syllable words. He is able to read material on his level. Jackson needs to continue working on increasing his reading comprehension skills. He needs to also increase his vocabulary skills and answer comprehension questions, using context clues and inferring as these reading deficits impacts his ability to perform in the general curriculum. When given a passage to read on his level, Jackson will consistently decode three syllable and unknown words in order to read with more fluency and to answer related questions at the inferential level with 80% accuracy on 3 out of 4 attempts. A brief part of the IEP explains which tests the student will be able to participate in. Which state tests and the accommodations used will be addressed. For example if a student will be receiving read aloud for state tests, then that will be addressed in the IEP. Assessments: As discussed, assessments are the basis of building the IEP. Progress monitoring is a continuous, yet very important part of the program. Students need to be assessed on how well they are performing, teachers and parents need to know whether students are progressing and if not what further steps need to be taken. Here are a few commonly used progress monitoring assessments: Benchmarks, writing samples, chapter review tests, spelling tests, writing portfolios, iReady, MobyMax, standardized tests, informal and formal assessments. Involve the Parent: During your teaching career you will find that it is not always easy getting parents to attend meeting especially IEP meeting. Some parents may have bad experiences with meetings. Some parents may feel like meetings maybe an “attack” on their child or parenting. A great suggestion before inviting a parent to a meeting and discussing concern would to first introduce the strengths that the student has. This lets the parent know that this is not a bashing segment of the child. Parents will be more apt to listen and to attend if they hear something positive first. If Jackson has difficulty reading, you may want to start the conversation out with, “Jackson is such a hard working student and he has a wonderful sense of humor.” Then you can go into the concerns because the parent may not be as defensive as if you start the conversation out with. “Hello, Jackson struggles in reading, he needs help.” Some parents may get discouraged and shut down. Also, a teacher should call parents and get acquainted. Call often to share progress. Call before a meeting, then call to ensure that the parent will participate. Co-Teaching Co-teaching is when there are two teachers in a regular classroom. Usually there is one general education teacher and one special needs teacher. There are different methods to co- teaching, but they both share the responsibility of teaching, instruction, assessing. Sometimes teachers use the one teach one observe method, some teachers parallel teach, some alternate teach, and some teach in groups. Challenges of Co-Teaching •A challenge that I see in a co-teaching classroom is that if you do not have good communication with a co-teacher, it could result in one teacher doing all or most of the work, or even a power struggle. •It is imperative that the school should have training for the co-teaching classrooms to teach co-teachers how to be effective. Teaching them the different methods and approaches to co-teaching. It can be intimidating or uncomfortable already for a teacher to have to work with another teacher. Challenges of Co-Teaching •Special needs get more attention in the classroom than they would get in a classroom with one teacher. •This allows for differentiated lessons and makes it achievable for both teachers to use the parallel teaching approach.